Displaced

A documentary film by Volkan Uce. Music by David Boulter

The title of this film is taken from Charles Bukowski’s eponymous poem. One of its lines is: “I am not like other people. Other people are like other people.” The young people in Volkan Üce’s “Displaced” know the experience of being different and without a home Bukowski talks about. Sinan, Şule, Orhan and Bahar spent their childhood and youth in Belgium and the Netherlands before they moved (back) to Istanbul, their grandparents’ home country. But even in the city they love so much they are strangers at first.

Over a period of four years – from 2011 to 2015 – Üce follows the Belgian-Turkish or Dutch-Turkish migrants on their quest for identity, jobs and personal happiness. In the face of the political upheavals in Turkey, their European socialisation takes on a different significance. While Orhan sides with Erdoğan, taking part in the Gezi protests becomes a meaningful experience and a way to find his place in society for Sinan: “Gezi is ours. Istanbul is ours. The lightbulb has bursted”, the writing on the wall reads.

wednesday, 15th march 2017

MINUTE BODIES

THE INTIMATE WORLD OF F. PERCY SMITH

Musical score by tindersticks

with Thomas Belhom and Christine Ott

City Slang Ltd edition LP/DVD CD/DVD

BFI expanded Blu-ray / DVD

RELEASED 09/12 JUNE 2017

F. Percy Smith was not an expert but an enthusiast – some would even say a dabbler – derided as an ‘entertainer’ in higher scientific circles.

Even so, between the years of 1922 and 1933, he became a pioneer of micro-cinema. And, as part of the ‘Secrets of Nature’ educational film series his work filled the British public with wonder at being shown these strange worlds for the first time.

‘Minute bodies’ is created entirely from Smiths original footage – filmed in his North London home, often using equipment designed and built by himself.

Directed by Stuart A. Staples

Exhibitions

18th March / 28th August 2017 Pompidou centre, METZ
Presented as part of the ‘Jardin infini’ exhibitiondetails here

So long, 2016…

Coming to end of a pretty full-on year – Lots of great concerts, so important for us to feel the direct connection of our music. ‘The waiting room’ has kept us engaged all this year, we will miss it – Although we are also a little desperate to discover something new.

A strange and sad year also – As you can imagine for a bunch of displaced European and American musicians.

Many people to thank who have helped us this year – giving a great momentum to the album and the concerts – Christof and City Slang, Alistair of Music beyond Mainstream, Matthieu of La Blogotheque, Richard Dumas, Calmin of Clermont Ferrand ISFF. Our amazing technicians – Graham for giving you a great sound, Marco for giving us a great sound, Paul for catching the mood with the lights, Young Will who gave us an appreciated injection of youth and took good care of our instruments, long-suffering Anthony who organised it all and Dan pulling the strings and tidying up.

So many great nights, too many to mention, but the Paris residency at Les Bouffes du Nord was a powerful experience. The welcome from the people of Tarbes, Cambridge, Coimbra, Arras took us by surprise. So good to be in Athens and Istanbul again. Magical nights in Antwerp, Stockholm, Lyon, Porto, Berlin and so many more.
We were grateful also to have Thomas Belhom, Christine Ott and Miss Kenichi along with us.

Behind the scenes David has been scoring his first TV series – HBO’s ‘Pustina’ – much of the work made in the dressing rooms of Europe! And, with a little help, I have scored Christophe Agou’s posthumous film ‘Sans adieu’, hopefully to be released in 2017 – Another kindred spirit greatly missed.

We are also sad to say that Imogen Skirving, owner of Langar Hall, died in the summer. We only became friends recently but she had a powerful effect – Such an inspiring person – She really helped us with the photos and film for the Waiting Room, so welcoming and encouraging – She enjoyed this strange bunch of people wandering round her Langar Hall lead by a man with a donkeys head.
We were introduced to her by our great friend Wolfgang Buttress (check out Wolf’s award winning Hive at Kew gardens and his soundtrack for it) – a long way from us playing in bands in Nottingham in the mid 80’s, brought together by a shared love of the Go-betweens.

Thank you to you all for your continued support, we hope you all found a little of what you love from us this year. It feels that 2017 has already arrived with exciting possibilities for ‘Minute bodies’ coming in – ‘Many screenings and there will be a handful of special cine-concerts, the first recently announced with more soon. The film will also be an installation at the Pompidou in Metz in the spring, details to follow. The music is already stretching us before we even start! The cine-concerts will be accompanied each night with a second set of songs, very different to The waiting room (Seaweed? My sister?) and we will have both Thomas Belhom and Andy Nice in the band with us.

Claire Denis will also be very busy next year and 2017 will start the process of an exciting relocation for the bands activity – our home for 10 years, complete with Hungry saw ‘tattoo’ on its kitchen wall, will be ‘on the market…

We have had a number of requests for a list of the walk-in music from the concerts here and the words for the Waiting Room here

The bands Q and A compiled by Nathan from the forum is also now complete and you can read it here

Here’s to 2017 – lets give it some hope!

monday, 5th december 2016

Philharmonie de Paris

The “Philharmonie de Paris” album is now available from our online shop

thursday, 22th september 2016

Minute bodies: The intimate world of F. Percy Smith

Minute bodies: The intimate world of F. Percy Smith

Official selection at London Film Festival.
Premiere at 9pm, 11th October 2016, NFT 1, plus Q&A with Stuart and co-editor David Reeve.

Finally, after three years in the making, Minute Bodies is ready for others to see and hear.

Directed by Stuart and co-edited with David Reeve, it has a musical score by tindersticks with Thomas Belhom and Christine Ott. The music also benefits from great cameo performances from David Coulter (musical saw & nose flute) and Julian Siegel (saxophone)

The LFF describes the film…

‘This meditative, immersive film is a tribute to the astonishing work and achievements of naturalist, inventor and pioneering filmmaker F. Percy Smith.
Smith worked in the early years of the 20th century, developing various cinematographic and micro-photographic techniques to capture nature’s secrets in action.

Minute Bodies is an interpretative edit that combines Smith’s original footage with a new contemporary score to create a hypnotic, alien yet familiar dreamscape that connects us to the sense of wonder Smith must have felt as he peered through his own lenses and seen these micro-worlds for the first time.’

In 2017 there will be a small selection of special live cine-events, the first to be announced is Le Lieu Unique in Nantes on Saturday the 11th, and Sunday the 12th of March.Minute bodies will feature as one of two sets for the evening…the other set being a special collection of tindersticks songs and music.

tindersticks, new ‘how he entered’ film

‘very excited to announce that our new film for ‘how he entered’ will be available next week.

the conclusion(?) of what was started with Richard Dumas on the photo session for the album cover, the film directed by Richard and Amaury Voslion was story boarded/art directed by stuart and suzanne.
It was shot in and around Langar Hall in Nottinghamshire, UK.

The film will be presented at Fondation Cartier, Paris on the evening of Monday 22nd February.

It will then be available to see on the Lomography website worldwide from Wednesday 24th February at 4p.m. C.E.T. (there is a little interview there too)

we hope you enjoy (it makes Neil cry..)

thursday, 18th february 2016

tindersticks, philharmonie de paris, 10th february 2015

limited edition live lp and cd available at all forthcoming concerts £20 /£15
it sounds lovely…

keep you beautiful
medicine
johnny guitar
into the night
boobar come back to me
come feel the sun
a night so still
the otherside of the world
drunk tank
factory girls
sometimes it hurts
my oblivion

wednesday, 17th february 2016

Berlin, 12th & 13th February, 2016

We feel the need to say something after this weekend in Berlin.

tindersticks have a long and cherished history with the Volksbuhne Theatre and we chose this venue as the ideal place to present the Waiting Room film concert in Berlin.
Unfortunately, we were not informed of the dramatic re-configuration of the space and conditions our audience would have to deal with (sitting on concrete)
Added to this, technical issues at the venue on Saturday meant that the concert was delayed by over an hour and ultimately the way that we intended to present the two sets was compromised.
It was actually one of the most difficult and painful days in the bands history. We are extremely proud of everyone in our organisation that we were even able to play a concert that night, let alone in such style.

For all of you who attended, we hope our love and excitement for our new album (and films) and our joyous reconnection with our back catalogue transcended these problems.

We are planning a return to Berlin later in the year and we are close to confirming the most beautiful place for your eyes (and the softest seats for your bottoms). There will be an announcement very soon.

Until then…

with love, tindersticks

wednesday, 27th january 2016

tour guests

We are delighted to announce that Christine Ott has accepted to invitation to be our guest on our tour from Dijon on 24th February until Zurich on 7th March.

Miss Kenichi will be with us from Munich on 11th March until Hamburg on 14th March.

Simon Lenski will be with us in Antwerp on 20th March and in Leuven on 22nd March

Singing skies, Clermont-Ferrand

Saturday 6th – Friday 26th February

The installation Singing Skies is the unfolding of a book of the same title which marries Suzanne Osborne’s ‘A year in small paintings – Skies, September 2010-September 2011’ with stuart A. staples’ song lyrics, written down for the first time.

The paintings, together with typed lyrics, are accompanied by a selection of limited edition of carborundum prints from the book and a documentary by Martin Wallace.

The exhibition will also feature nine new studies of the skies in a larger format.

thursday, 7th january 2016

New song ‘Were we once lovers?’ with film directed by Pierre Vinour

Exclusive screening events of ‘The waiting room’ film project

To celebrate the album release we will be hosting events in New York, London, Brussels and Paris featuring a screening of The Waiting Room film project, plus Q&As with Stuart Staples and Acoustic performances. More details below:

The new album, film project

Hello everyone. Welcome to this next part of our band’s journey.
The new album, ‘The waiting room’, was completed in the summer after a long time of gradual writing and recording. We think it’s pretty strong and a step on (a stride even?) from ‘The something rain’.

I think it’s our first real ‘5 piece’ album. There are some great guest contributions also – Jehnny Beth, Lhasa, Julian Seigel – but it is more or less a balance between the 5 of us.

The song, ‘We are dreamers!’, has been out there a while and ‘Hey Lucinda’ is here below with its great film by British artists Rosie Pedlow and Joe King.

The film is part of ‘The waiting room film project’; collaboration with the Clermont- Ferrand International Short Film Festival, with each song from the album having a short film commissioned specifically for it. The process of working with the festival to identify directors, team them with songs and then carry the conversation through to conclusion has been a long but rewarding one. Myself and Suzanne were even able to explore some of the visual ideas we had for the songs.

It was a great feeling to bring all the works together recently. A dvd of the complete project will be part of the limited edition packages.

Many concerts are being confirmed for the first half of next year. A number of them will be cine concerts with the songs played live to the projected films. The first of these special concerts will be at the Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

The artwork comes from a Richard Dumas photo session, as well as the cover image there is a 16 page photo booklet in the LP and CD.

As Neil commented recently ‘This album…it’s a bit of a monster’

Hey Lucinda

I started to write this song a long time ago – around 6am, walking the streets of central Cologne – I didn’t realise then that by trying to push at the way a duet is structured – making this song more conversational, fluid – that the musical setting it actually asked for was beyond us. A ten year struggle commenced, it became a joke in the band – ‘Time to try again with Lucinda…’

Along the way I visited my great friend Lhasa de Sela in Montreal and we spent a little time recording a version of ‘Hey Lucinda’. She understood that it was not right for this song to lament, that underneath its ‘sad’ surface, it is full of mischief.

After Lhasa’s death on New Years day 2010 I had to put the song (and her other recordings) away. I have only recently been able to listen to her sing again and Lucinda resurfaced in my consciousness, though this time I was more able to understand what it needed – To be true to the moment we shared singing it together. As a band we approached the music again, giving it only just what was needed but hopefully catching some of that mischief!

tuesday, 29th september 2015

In Dreams: David Lynch Revisited

After the success of the Barbican show last year there will be a further series of ‘In Dreams’ concerts in November.
Stuart is looking forward to being one of the guest singers involved.

tindersticks – new album progress…

This can only mean that the final mixes of a new tindersticks album are being finished at Le Chien – All final versions of our songs have ended up being recorded on this little machine since 2003.

So things are starting to happen towards a very busy 2016 for the band.

A comprehensive announcement is planned for September, but in the meantime keep an eye on our concerts page as shows will start to be announced over the next few months. If you are thinking of travelling, keep in mind that we plan to be busy and covering a lot of ground!

We are all looking forward to it!

wednesday, 13th may 2015

Beyond Harlem Nocturne: Terry Edwards & Neil Fraser

It’s official – Terry & Neil are at the Edinburgh Fringe this year.
Where – The Caley Bar, Waldorf Astoria, Princes Street, Edinburgh EH1 2AB
When – 8pm August 7 to August 30 (no shows on Aug 19 or 26)Tickets – £10 / £ 8Facebook page
We look forward to seeing you there!

wednesday, 18th february 2015

Philharmonie de Paris show

For those of you who were unable to see us at the Philharmonie de Paris, or those who missed the live feed, here’s a link to the full concert…

tindersticks, Ypres

tindersticks, Ypres

On 17th October 2014, tindersticks will release the commissioned soundscapes from the In Flanders Fields WW1 museum in Ypres, Belgium.Available LP, CD and download.Click here for more details.

tuesday, 9th september 2014

Mista soundtrack by David Boulter and Vaclav Havelka

David has been working with Vaclav Havelka on the soundtrack for the Czech film, Mista (Places).It will be released in Czech cinemas on 18th September 2014.The official teaser can be seen here…And, the official video for the song can be watched here…

Singing Skies at the Nottingham Contemporary

The installation Singing Skies is an unfolding of a book of the same title which marries Suzanne Osborne’s ‘A year in small paintings – Skies, September 2010-September 2011’ with stuart A. staples’s song lyrics, written down for the first time. The paintings together with typed lyrics and a documentary by Martin Wallace are set within a structure created by artist Wolfgang Buttress, which provides a surface for the projection of Claire Denis’ film of the paintings, with an original score by tindersticks.
tindersticks will perform a special acoustic set on the Friday evening.

Cascadeur – ‘Ghost Surfer’

Cascadeurs new album Ghost Surfer is released on Monday 3rd Feb.
Stuart had the pleasure of singing with him on the song ‘The Crossing’ there is a glimpse of it herewww.cascadeursound.com

friday, 31st january 2014

Festival Printemps de Bourges

We will be playing at La Cathedrale, as part of Festival Printemps de Bourges, Bourges, France on 25 April. We’ll be bringing some strings and brass along with us as well.Festival information can be found here: www.printemps-bourges.comTicket information can be found here: http://alias.fnacspectacles.comWe look forward to seeing you there.

thursday, 23rd january 2014

Singing Skies Cherbourg

Singing Skies exhibition will be at ‘Le Point du Jour’ gallery, 107 Avenue de Paris, 50100 Cherbourg-Octeville, from February 1st until the 16th, 2014.

tindersticks will play an intimate show at 9pm on the opening night – Saturday, the 1st February.
A strictly limited number of tickets are available from the gallery, priced at 20€ in advance, or 25€ on the night.
There are very few tickets left so buying in advance is recommended.

If you cannot get to see the show, but would like to see the exhibition, the gallery is open:
Wednesday, Thursday & friday, from 2 pm to 6pm
Saturday & Sunday, from 2 pm to 9pm

Second half of Carborundum prints now available

The second half of Carborundum prints are now available
with a new film about the making of them by Martin Wallace.

Suzanne revisited Vienna at the beginning of November to complete the Singing Skies carborundum print project.
New prints for ‘Marbles’, ‘Don’t ever get tired’, ‘This fire of autumn’, ‘She’s gone’ and ‘Dance with an old man’ are now available – details here.
You can also watch the film.

ARTE film of Singing Skies acoustic and Kampnagel shows

Arte filmed the band in Berlin for the Singing Skies acoustic show and in Hamburg at the Kampnagel festival. This will be shown at 00.10 on 29 September in Germany and France. After that, it’ll be available online for 7 days in the Arte Media Library in Germany and France here…

Singing Skies Carborundum prints

Singing Skies Carborundum prints are now available. A selection of 5 songs and painting pairs from the Singing Skies book.
Limited to just 12 editions of each of the 5 prints (Cherry Blossoms, I know that loving, Marseilles sunshine, My oblivion and The other side of the world)
Handmade by Suzanne and master printmaker Tom Phelan in Vienna.

LES SALAUDS O.S.T.

Continuing a long and fruitful creative relationship, Tindersticks have completed their 6th original film score for renowned director Claire Denis, for her provocative thriller BASTARDS/LES SALAUDS, released in French cinemas on 7th August.Marking a fundamental stylistic departure for the band, the hypnotic electronic score resonates the darkly sensual and dreamlike rhythms of the film’s revenge narrative, featuring a new twist on the Hot Chocolate classic ‘Put Your Love in Me’.The soundtrack for Bastards/Les Salauds is released on the Lucky Dog / Naive label and will be available as a digital download on the 7th August from Naive and on LP & CD from 16th September. Pre-orders for the soundtrack will be available in the tindersticks shop soon…details to followIn the meantime, here’s a track from the film for you to enjoy and download. Put Your Love In Me (fade) …or download it here

tindersticks
Across six leap years

stuart a. staples & suzanne osborne – singing skies

On May 13 2013, in association with Hannibal Publishing, ‘Singing skies’ was released. A collection of Stuart’s song lyrics, written down for the first time, and extracts from Suzanne’s ‘A year in small paintings’.The book ia a hardback, limited first edition of 2500. You can order the book from us here.As part of Vooruit’s (Gent) 100 year celebrations from May 9 – 26, there is an exhibition of the paintings accompanied by a video installation, based on the paintings, by Claire Denis (with an original tindersticks score).May 10th saw a book launch at the Vooruit with a special acoustic concert by tindersticks.Tickets for the event were limited to 250 and included the book and a hand printed woodblock poster, numbered and unique to the event.